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Busy Monday Night

I’m not sure I think Jon and Reid’s ideas for getting women are the best way to go about doing so. But then, I’ve yet to date anyone so what do I know!

Got home just in time to see most of President Obama’s press conference tonight. I thought he started off fairly strong, saying how certain types of government spending would help the country. But he was a little preachy throughout, and his comments about how consumer spending wasn’t a major factor in the economic meltdown and subsequent recession are absurd. Fact is, debt is an issue for many Americans. Some claims about consumer spending and debt may be wildly overstating the problem, as Liz Weston notes, but people are going to be hard-pressed to stimulate the economy with extra money if they’ve got previous bills to catch up on. And that’s before you even start talking about saving money for the future, whether to retire or just for another economic downturn. Banks did take risks, as Obama said, but people kept spending on the assumption that booming home values (spurred in part by those comically low mortgage rates) would erase debts later.

Obama probably accomplished what he needed to tonight, and that is keep most of the public and his own party lined up behind doing something, not “nothing” as he termed some Republicans (others obviously want something to be done, but with less government spending). Perhaps just as important in rebuilding the economy will be whether or not he can make Washington reform things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care. They’re probably only going to cost the country more in future years, taking away money to build greener energy sources, improve education, or just simplify our income tax system.

I’ll try to find something less heavy to blog about next time. Not steroids, though. Just sick and tired of that conversation. Testing and penalties are more stringent now than they were in the past. We’ll never find out the whole truth about the past, and we may never be able to keep pace with the chemists who design undetectable drugs. But as long as the sports world continues to fight against and punish future steroid use, they will become cleaner over time.